The screening program to detect abnormal hemoglobins in progress in this laboratory will be continued. Blood samples are obtained from patients in Johns Hopkins or other clinics and hospitals, and from patients referred because of unexplained hematologic disorders. Oxygen affinity and stability, as well as electrophoretic and chromatographic mobility, are measured in the screening process. When new or unusual findings are encountered, appropriate clinical, genetic and hematologic studies are performed. Oxygen delivery, red cell survival, hemoglobin synthesis and turnover, effects of 2,3 DPG, CO2 and pH on oxygen affinity, heme-heme interaction and the tetramer-dimer equilibrium are studied. Special interest is devoted to those abnormalities which are associated with clinical manifestations or which are of unusual genetic significance. Attempts are made to establish a correlation between the structural abnormality and its functional effects. Clinical studies of the natural history of sickle cell anemia, of the efficacy of conventional modes of treatment of that disease, and of oxygen transport in hemoglobinopathies, are planned. The investigations to be performed will be along the lines of those carried out in this laboratory during the past 21 years. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: Charache, S., Dreyer, R., and Zimmerman, I: Evaluation of Extra Corporeal Alkylation of Red Cells as a Potential Treatment for Sickle Cell Anemia. Blood 47:481-488, 1976. Kan, Y. W., Holland, J. P., Dozy, A. M., Charache, S. and Kazazian, H. H.: Deletion of the beta-globin Structure Gene in Hereditary Persistence of Foetal Haemoglobin. Nature 258:162-163, 1975.